ISTP News

The night-time condition in informal settlements is often characterised by a lack of light on pedestrian path networks. A common technological approach in some countries to address these needs is to provide high-mast luminaires. In his paper, ISTP researcher David M. Kretzer shows that the application of high-mast luminaires has several limitations, as it fails to create adequate consistent lighting conditions in common forms of informal settlements.

The Clarence Stone Scholar Award recognizes young scholars who are making a significant contribution to the study of urban politics. ISTP Member David Kaufmann has been selected to receive the 2020 award as a result of his strong publication record and his applied work in real world policy and governance. (Re-post from Spatial Development and Urban Policy – SPUR News)

The second video of our video statement series "ISTP4Public" is out and it provides fresh insights into the public support and the political feasibility of policy options for promoting EV adoption. ISTP PhD student Gracia Brückmann shares the key findings of her and Prof. Thomas Bernauer’s recently published study in Environmental Research Letters.

The RESPONSE Doctoral Programme (DP) «RESPONSE - to society and policy needs through plant, food and energy sciences» builds on the academic expertise of three world-leading institutions - ETH Zurich, University of Zurich and University of Basel - and the three internationally renowned competence centers Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC), the World Food System Center and Energy Science Center. It will start in February 2020.

Architects and urban designers are currently developing new concepts and tools to comply with the participatory design approach emerging. Urban Research Incubator researchers Michael Walczak & David M. Kretzer are investigating innovative lighting approaches and their performance in Bogotá, co-created with informal settlement dwellers and tested with Colombian policy-makers. Their work is hosted by the Network City and Landscape Newsletter addressing the topic of "Participation".

Societies face increasingly complex and dynamic problems, with climate change being one of the most notable examples. Researchers from the ETH Energy Politics Group, including ISTP member Prof. Tobias Schmidt, investigated the interaction between regulatory instruments to address such problems. Based on a case study on energy efficiency in buildings in Switzerland, they found a symbiotic interaction between public and private regulation that leads to ratcheting-up of regulatory stringency.

The International Political Economy Group led by Prof. Thomas Bernauer is currently looking for a Doctoral Student in Environmental Politics. The position will start in autumn 2020, the funding is for up to four years. Depending on her/his particular skills and interests, the new doctoral student will contribute to one or more of the group’s research projects.

The world’s brightest minds collaborate in a 48h online hackathon to fight the COVID-19 crisis. This is an initiative under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) that aims to develop daring and innovative ideas for successfully facing the challenges posed by the Coronavirus.

A new article on political populism and public support for climate mitigation by Dr. Robert A. Huber from University of Salzburg, PhD Candidate at ETH Zurich Lukas Paul Fesenfeld and ETH Prof. Thomas Bernauer was published in Climate Policy. Their study assesses whether populism could affect citizen support for climate mitigation policies. It also investigates to what extent frames about elite responsiveness are important heuristics for individuals´ preferences concerning climate policies.

A new study on response preparedness to influenza epidemic by Marcello Marini & Dr. Ndaona Chokani from ETH Zurich, PhD Student at the ETH Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences Cyril Brunner and ETH Prof. Reza S. Abhari was recently published in Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory. Their work is highly relevant to the current situation in light of latest developments in the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.

With guests including Ambassador Raymond Furrer (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs - SECO), this event, which takes place from Thursday, 19. March to Saturday, 21. March 2020, will inaugurate the newest building emerging from the research of the Klumpner Chair – the Fábrica de Cultura: BAQ, in Barranquilla, Colombia.

ISTP PhD Students David Kretzer & Michael Walczak will give a lecture on public lighting in informal settlements at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá on Tuesday, 17. March 2020, at 18.00.

The Digital Society Initiative (DSI), launched at the University of Zurich, is organizing a theme week on "Artificial intelligence - what does it mean for our lives?" from March 16 to 20, 2020. During this week, focus will be given to opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence. Various experts in the field of artificial intelligence will present to what extent AI intervenes in our daily lives and what it can really achieve today. 

Electric mobility - still a privilege? Electric mobility is not suitable for mass use yet. This can be partially attributed to the lack of public charging stations. The number of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations that are located in public parking lots within cities, is indeed modest, as a recent survey conducted among the ten largest cities in Switzerland by the Swiss Daily Newspaper Tages-Anzeiger indicates.

Switzerland is a major trade hub for many commodities, such as coffee, cereals but also metals. Therefore, the Swiss economy is facilitating supply of these goods and links producers with consumers. This NEO Panel in collaboration with ETH's Institute of Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP) will elaborate on the role of Swiss commodity traders in sustainable mining, and their responsibilities.

Désirée Ruppen, PhD candidate at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy at ETH Zurich, is currently working on a project called “Community-​based water quality monitoring of Deka River in Zimbabwe”. The term “Community-based” means that scientists are working in close collaboration with community members who live along Deka River and are impacted by water pollution. Local communities have already initiated a mediation process in order to improve the environmental conditions.

In July 2020, Université Laval (in Quebec, Canada) will host an International Student Summit on Climate, aimed at young university students or recent graduates from across the world. A call for applications is being launched in January 2020 and the deadline to submit an application will be on February 12, 2020, at midnight (Quebec time, Canada).

Compete in the Global Essay Competition, get the chance to win the St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award and qualify for participation as a Leader of Tomorrow in the world's premier opportunity for intergenerational debates: The St. Gallen Symposium.

The Geneva Science-Policy Interface (GSPI) works at the intersection of science and policy, leveraging the synergy between actors of international Geneva and an extensive network of researchers to promote the development of effective practices. In 2020, the Impact Collaboration Programme (ICP) will give particular attention to projects that develop or apply methodologies with the aim to foster data-driven decision-making.

The Swiss Daily Newspaper Tages-Anzeiger recently published an insightful article about the preliminary results of an ETH Zurich Mobility research project. According to these, electric mobility is not suitable for mass use yet. “Charging stations close to apartment facilities should change that,” says ETH Prof. Thomas Bernauer, who gave a talk together with various experts in the field of Electric Mobility on Tuesday, January 14, 2020.

A recent publication on PS: Political Science & Politics by ETH Prof. David Kaufmann and Prof. Mara Sidney from Rutgers University-Newark on urban policy-making. This symposium suggests that to understand contemporary societal transformation — and political and policy processes more generally — the policies that cities create and implement are essential objects of study.

The Life Science Zurich Young Scientist Network invites you to the 11^th edition of the largest life science career event in Switzerland - the Zurich Life Science Day 2020!

The 47-year-old Mühleberg nuclear power plant, near Bern, was permanently switched off on Friday. This is the first of five Swiss nuclear power reactor to be decommissioned.

We are delighted to announce that ISTP PhD student Michael Wicki successfully defended his thesis on Wednesday, 18 December 2019. We would like to congratulate him warmly and wish him all the best for his future career!

Call for a graphics design/report writing job under student research assistant terms in the project Swiss Environmental Panel of ETH Zurich.

The Swiss Environmental Panel explores public opinion in Switzerland in relation to environmental preferences and behavior, changes therein, and linkages to preferences and behavior in other policy realms.

We are pleased to announce a new position at the D-USYS TdLab. The Lab offers in collaboration with the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP), the ETH Lausanne and SBB a two-year project, and is currently looking for: “Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in deutscher Sprache mit guten sozialwissenschaftlichen Methodenkenntnissen”.

Stephan Pfister, scientific collaborator at the Institute of Environmental Engineering of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering and senior researcher at the Insitute of Science, Technology and Policy, is listed as "Highly Cited Researcher 2019" in the analysis of the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Group. (Re-​post from D-BAUG News)

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Nathan Williams, Assistant Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, for his visit to the ISTP and his fascinating and insightful talk on decentralized energy systems in East Africa.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Sophie Oldfield for her visit to the ISTP and her interesting and insightful talk on collaborative urban theory.

The Center for Law & Economics at ETH Zurich will have the pleasure of hosting CERN's Dr. Maurizio Bona on Tuesday October 1. Dr. Bona is the senior advisor for relations with parliaments and science for policy at CERN. He will give a talk in IFW A.32.1 from 10 am to 12 pm on Tuesday, October 1, in conjunction with the Law & Tech course, which is offered through the Science in Perspective programme. 

ISTP PhD student Yael Borofsky, along with PhDs and Post-Docs from 7 other groups at ETH Zurich and the Energy Science Center, have launched the Energy Blog @ ETH Zurich, a new platform for discussions on energy policy, science, technology, and business.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Ambuj Sagar from the Indian Institute of Technology, Prof. Noelle Selin from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Prof. Joanna Chataway from the University College London for their visit to the ISTP and their interesting and insightful discussion with Prof. Sarah Springman and Prof. Tobias Schmidt about the importance of science and technology in public policy-making.

Hey ISTP Alumni! Join us on Friday 13th September 2019 at 5pm and celebrate with us the launch of the AlumniSTP group. Meet old friends and welcome the new cohort of Master students.

Inauguration of the Island City Exhibition took place on Thursday 29th August 2019. A series of events, debates and conferences with architects, planners, anthropologists exploring topics around the island city will take place the following days.

Professor Thomas Bernauer from ETH Zurich received on Friday, 30th August 2019 the American Political Science Association’s Elinor Ostrom Career Achievement Award, which is given to an individual in recognition of their lifetime contribution to the study of science, technology, and environmental politics (STEP).

We are pleased to announce the foundation of the STP Alumni, a group which connects former students of the Institute for Science, Technology and Policy. Since 2019 the group is open for graduated MSc and MAS students as well as doctoral candidates.

“Do you know how to navigate the real-world systems in which technologies live?” Thirty students from five technical universities across Europe were confronted with this question at the start of a three-day meeting. This was the last of four meetings, the previous of which had been hosted by Politecnico di Milano, Chalmers University of Technology and RWTH Aachen University. The event at ETH Zurich was hosted by the Swiss Mobility Lab between Friday 12^th and Sunday 14^th April.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Reza Abhari for his talk at the ISTP and his interesting insights on how to maintain and expand Swiss national wealth.

We would like to warmly thank Prof. Noelle Eckley Selin for her visit to the ISTP and her interesting and insightful talk on climate change and air pollution.

Prof. Bauke Steenhuisen from the Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) Faculty at TU Delft, Netherlands, visited the ISTP to talk about the importance of storytelling.

Prof. Andrea Castelletti from the Natural Resources Management Group at Politecnico di Milano visited the ISTP to give a talk on soft-path solutions for hard water problems in the Italian sub-alpine lake district.

The Swiss Environmental Panel explores public opinion in Switzerland in relation to environmental preferences and behavior, changes therein, and linkages to preferences and behavior in other policy realms.

The IMF is worried because of many states' increasing indebtedness, and talks of new risks in the world economy, ten years after the 2008 financial crisis. As a trade expert, Thomas Bernauer is analyzing the current situation from an economic as well as political perspective on the Swiss Public Radio (SRF 4).

Prof. Hiroaki Matsuura Provost and Vice President (Academic) at Shoin University in Japan visited the ISTP on October 2nd to talk about the Economic and Demographic Effects of Emergency Risk Communication based on Evidence from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster.

After his talk in Vienna, the ISTP Director Thomas Bernauer was featured in an article by the Austrian public broadcasting company (ORF). His talk was around the 'water war' hypothesis, which is pretty prominent because of climate change. However, Thomas' research shows that water conflicts rather lead to cooperation between states.

Prof. Frank Jotzo of ANU (Australian National University) Crawford School of Public Policy visited ISTP on September 20, 2018 to talk about the recent history of Australian climate change policy and the politics surrounding it. He also presented results from ongoing research on the energy transition away from coal to renewable energy sources.

The 5-day IDEA League summer school, organised by ISTP, was a success with the participation of 56 students from eleven leading universities, debating how they, the next generation of thinkers and leaders can use their disciplinary knowledge to reduce society’s environmental footprint.